Opatija. Things to do, map and hidden gems

The Hotel Kvarner opened in 1884 and was the first hotel on the eastern shore of the Adriatic. It was built by the Southern Railway Company, which ran the line from Vienna to Rijeka and realised that travellers could be offered a destination as well as transport; with that, Opatija went in a single decade from fishing settlement to winter resort of central European society. The building is Neoclassical, with a long facade toward the sea and terraces, and in it is the Crystal Hall with chandeliers and parquet, still used for balls and concerts. From the beginning the hotel had baths of heated sea water, part of the therapy of the day. The hotel is still in operation, and the garden and the seaward terrace are open to cafe guests, so the place can be seen without staying the night.

The Maiden with the Seagull stands on a rock beside the Lungomare and is today the most recognisable motif of Opatija, though it is not the first statue that stood on that spot. It was preceded by the Madonna del Mare, set up in 1891 in memory of Count Arthur Kesselstadt, who drowned that year in a storm off the shore; when the statue suffered from the waves it was moved to the grounds of St Jacob's church, and in 1956 the bronze maiden by the sculptor Zvonko Car was placed on the rock. The figure faces the open sea, with an outstretched arm on which a seagull perches, and it changes appearance with the light and the sea; in rough weather the waves wash it to the knees. It is photographed from the whole Lungomare, and the best moment is early morning, before the groups gather.

The Town Tower in Lovran is a rectangular stone structure of the 14th century and the oldest preserved building in the settlement. It was raised as part of the defensive ring that protected the core on the rise by the sea, and beneath it is the passage through which one entered the town; the gate was shut at night, and the watch surveyed from the top the coast toward the Kvarner gulf, from where pirates and, later, the uskoks came. When the danger ceased, the tower took a quieter role: a clock was placed in it, and the passage remained the main entrance to the old core, as it still is. The walls are almost two metres thick, and the stone was quarried nearby. The tower is seen from outside at any time; through the passage you enter the narrow streets of Lovran and reach the church of St George.

The Croatian Museum of Tourism is the only museum in the country devoted to how tourism on the eastern Adriatic arose and grew. It was founded in 2007 and is housed in Villa Angiolina and the neighbouring Swiss House, two buildings that are themselves part of that story. The display covers the period from the middle of the 19th century to today: the first guests from Vienna and Budapest, the prescribed therapies of sea and air, the timetables of the steamers and trains people arrived by, hotel guest books, posters, postcards, bathing costumes and luggage. It also shows how what was being sold changed: from health resort through summer holiday to mass tourism. The museum is small, the visit takes an hour, and the ticket is cheap and includes both buildings and a walk in the park.

The American Gardens are a smaller park ensemble in the southern part of Opatija, laid out in the period when the whole settlement was being built as a health resort and every new villa was surrounded by planting. The name remained from the plants brought here from the American continent and planted alongside native Mediterranean growth: beside cypresses, laurel and cherry laurel grow magnolias, agaves and trees not native to this climate but able to bear a mild winter without harm. That mixture is precisely the mark of the Opatija parks, because in the 19th century evergreens were believed to purify the air and help those with respiratory illness. The garden is small and quiet, with benches and paths in the shade, and it is reached from the Lungomare in a few minutes. It is open by day and free.

Lovran is the oldest settlement on this coast, mentioned as early as the early Middle Ages, and it takes its name from the laurel that grows here in abundance. The old core is small and compact on a low rise by the sea, with narrow streets, stone houses and the Town Tower of the 14th century that was once part of the defensive ring. In the centre stands the parish church of St George with 15th-century Gothic frescoes, among the most valuable in the Kvarner. Unlike Opatija, which arose as a health resort in the 19th century, Lovran is a genuine old town that tourism merely found. In October the Marunada is held here, a feast devoted to the marun, the large local chestnut that grows on the slopes of Ucka. The Lungomare leads to Lovran, an hour and a half's walk from Opatija.

The stone lookout tower on Vojak, the highest peak of Ucka at one thousand four hundred and one metres, was raised at the beginning of the 20th century, in the days when such towers were built on Alpine and pre-Alpine summits for mountaineers and day-trippers. It is built of local stone, circular in plan and low, because the summit is above everything around it anyway; an internal staircase brings you out onto a terrace from which the view reaches the Kvarner gulf with its islands, the whole of Istria, and in exceptionally clear weather as far as the Alps and across the sea to Italy. In summer a small refreshment space works in the tower. The summit is reached by the path from the Poklon pass, about an hour and a half's walk, or by longer mountain routes from Lovran and Opatija. The bora blows here even in summer, so a windproof jacket is essential.

The Lungomare, officially the Franz Joseph I Promenade, runs twelve kilometres along the coast from Volosko in the north to Lovran in the south and is the longest developed coastal walk in Croatia. It was built in stages between 1885 and 1911, in the days when Opatija was the winter resort of Viennese and Budapest society, and doctors prescribed a walk by the sea as part of therapy; the path is therefore gently graded, wide and runs the whole way right by the water. Along it stand villas, bathing places, pines and rocks to jump from, and from several points Cres and Krk are visible. The whole route is walked in three to four hours one way; for a shorter stretch take Opatija to Volosko, half an hour, or to Icici, about an hour.

Ucka is the mountain ridge rising immediately behind Opatija and separating the Kvarner from Istria; its highest peak is Vojak, one thousand four hundred and one metres, and on it stands a stone lookout tower raised at the beginning of the 20th century. The view from the top takes in the Kvarner gulf with the islands of Cres, Krk and Rab, the whole of Istria, and on very clear days the peaks of the Alps to the north-west and the Italian coast across the sea. Since 1999 the area has been protected as the Ucka Nature Park. Vojak is reached by road over the Poklon pass and a last half hour on foot, or by mountain paths from Opatija and Lovran, a climb of three to four hours. The summit is exposed to the bora, which blows cold even in summer, so bring a windproof jacket regardless of the temperature below.

Moscenicka Draga lies at the head of a deep bay fifteen kilometres south of Opatija and has what this coast mostly lacks: a long shingle beach with a gradual entry rather than concrete platforms. The Sipar beach runs the whole length of the bay, with fine white shingle and clear sea, and around it pinewoods that give shade. The place arose as the harbour of the village of Moscenice, which stands on the hill a hundred metres higher and is several centuries old; a long stone stairway leads up to it in half an hour, and above are narrow streets, a defensive wall and an old tos, a hand-driven oil press. Draga has a few hotels, restaurants and a campsite. From Opatija you come by bus in half an hour or by the coast road by car.

The Carmen Sylva forest promenade runs along the slope above Opatija, at around a hundred metres above sea level, and stretches about four kilometres from the centre toward Volosko. It was laid out at the end of the 19th century as part of the resort programme: besides the coastal walk for mild days, a path in the shade was needed, among pines and laurel, for the hours when it is too hot by the sea. It bears the name of Carmen Sylva, the literary pseudonym of the Romanian queen Elisabeth, who stayed in Opatija and wrote here. The path is almost level, wide and under crowns for its whole length, with benches and several points where a view of the gulf and the islands opens. It takes an hour one way, and is at its best on summer afternoons or after rain, when the forest is fragrant.

The summer stage was raised at the end of the 1950s by the shore, in the park between the hotels and the sea, and is one of the largest open-air auditoria on the Adriatic with about two thousand seats. Its particularity is the movable roof that closes when rain threatens, so a performance is rarely cancelled; at the time of building that solution was technically demanding, and it is why the stage has stayed in use for seven decades. From 1958 a popular music festival was held here that shaped the Yugoslav entertainment scene, and today concerts, theatre performances and festivals follow one another through the summer. Tickets are bought in advance, and for concerts by popular performers they sell out early. The auditorium is open toward the sea, so the stage itself has a backdrop that indoor halls do not.

The Opatija town market works in a covered hall not far from the centre and is the place where what the restaurants serve is bought. On the stalls are vegetables and fruit from the surrounding slopes of Ucka and from the Istrian hinterland, cheese, eggs, honey, olive oil and home-cured prosciutto, and in season the chestnut from the Lovran woods, which is larger here than elsewhere and is called marun. Prices are lower than in the shops of the centre, and the goods come mostly from family holdings. The market works in the morning and late morning, and the best choice is before nine; on Sundays it works shorter hours. For guests in apartments this is the most useful address in town, and even those who do not cook should stop by for cheese, oil and cured meat to take home.

The fish market in Opatija works beside the town market and opens early, closing when what was caught that night in the Kvarner gulf is sold. On the ice sardine and anchovy take turns, the most numerous here, and sea bass, sea bream, hake, scorpionfish and squid, and now and then langoustines from the deeper part of the gulf, for which the Kvarner is known. The Kvarner langoustine is valued for firm flesh and a sweeter taste, attributed to the colder water and the muddy bottom on which it grows. Prices depend on the catch; on Mondays the choice is smaller. The sellers will clean the fish on request, and for cooking a little oil, salt and a grill are enough. The market works in the morning, and the best choice is right after opening, before the restaurants take the largest pieces.